Tag Archives: tofu

Pep in My Step

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Whew!  I am sad to see Camile go, but it’s nice to have a day with a little downtime.  Before I drove her to the airport this morning I whipped up a Green Monster so she could have a taste.

1cup frozen spinach + 1frozen banana + 1cup oj = a new convert; she thought it tasted great!  Here’s what our mouths saw –

I made the world’s quickest grocery trip (we are out of town with family again this weekend) then came home for some serious cleaning.  I might have been working but at least I was home 🙂

Mid-morning I snacked on a 100-calorie Cheez-It pack Camile left behind.

As well as some Canada Candy!  This Cadbery Pep was basically just a foreign York Peppermint Patty.

Truth be told, I wasn’t even hungry, I just ate it because I was hot.  We try not to run our A.C. all that often and cool minty refreshingness straight from my fridge was hard to pass up.  Not the best reason to consume 200calories though…

When I did finally get hungry late in the afternoon I set out for a neighborhood wander.  We had food at home but I was in the mood for a walk so I let myself celebrate our $15 grocery bill (God coupons rock my socks so hard!).  I ended up at Saigon Cafe for Pad See Eiw with tofu.

I have zero control around broad rice noodles so I plated half of the serving and put the rest away before I even took a taste.

Sidenote – how cute are the plates I got for my birthday?

They almost match my favorite chopsticks.

Back to the food; Pad See Eiw is my favorite Thai dish but I was shocked to see how many veggies this version boasted.  You never see yellow squash in this dish but the addition was fabulous.

Tonight is something along the lines of dinner, tv, mini workout, more cleaning.

What tricks to you use to keep yourself from eating all of too big portions?

8hours in the Car Later

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We started off this morning with another bike ride!

Actually, my mom and I biked around and my dad and Adam walked behind.  It was a short ride because our main destination was coffee.

Piqua gas stations aren’t exactly floating in soy milk so I ended up having to use Irish crème non-dairy creamer, yetch!

For breakfast I pulled a Coconut Acai Prana Bar out of my snacks bag.

This was not enough food and I was starving the minute we hit the road.  I ate a bag of honey mustard and onion pretzel thins,

and I opened some honey roasted cashews.

Miracle of miracles, we managed to find another healthy road trip food option!

I have major adoration for Einstein Bagels anyways, but this was by far the healthiest car lunch one could eat.

I got the veggie sandwich – red onion, cucumber, tomato, lettuce on a sesame bagel thin – and subbed in hummus for cream cheese.

Filling, healthy and delicious.  It even came with an apple as a side.

A mealy and disgusting apple that I ended up throwing out the window, but at least it came with one! 😀

Things were going well until we realized we missed an exit and added 2.5hours to our trip.  Arrgh!  At least, when I was starving and things were looking grim, we found a Sheetz, with fresh fruit.

Watermelon,

and grapes.

And pretty road sign flower sculptures across the street.

When we did finally get back to Buffalo we quickly unpacked before grabbing dinner from the Co-op.

Baked veggie rolls,

and baked tofu with cilantro ginger sauce.

I hope everyone else had a great weekend!

When I Dip, You Dip, We Dip

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I’ve been pretty productive since last posting… For example, while I ate my watermelon (❤) I watched an episode of “The Dollhouse.”  I discovered it this weekend and I’m in love; why do I always discover shows after they’ve gone off the air?!?  Meanwhile, Adam and I split a serving of Salsa Kathy’s Krackers.

How gorgeous is that?

Also, I joined Adam for a trip to the gym.  Since I’m turning 25 in a month I don’t think my incidental exercise walks are going to cut it by themselves.  I did an easy season on the treadmill (remind me that I’m NOT to run for more than 15minutes until next week!), that was actually not that easy.  Can we say out of shape?

  • 5minutes walking warm up
  • (3minutes running + 2minutes walking) x 3 = 12minutes intervals
  • 6minutes running
  • 4minutes walking

I ended up covering 2.5miles in my 30minutes.  Then I finished up with some stretching and pt.

Post-shower I made a delightful, dippable dinner.  Boco Meatless Nuggets,

oven roasted yellow squash, zucchini, and potato.

All together, with honey mustard dipping sauce.

I was still feeling hungry after dinner, probably because my day was pretty light on proteins and fats, so I made myself a revolutionary snack.

Protein pudding sans icky fake protein powder – into the blender went

  • 1 large banana
  • 1 serving silken tofu
  • 1T maple syrup
  • 1T peanut butter

And finally, I worked on my oral presentation for Thursday.  I actually have a test tomorrow but I’ll work on that in the morning 😉

Now I’m going to go accomplish bedtime.

What is your favorite dipping sauce?  Mine is 1000island, with everything!

Hunger Monster

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I have a test tomorrow morning (and you know I haven’t studied!) so I’ve got to keep this quick.  I didn’t eat anything that exciting today anyways.  Mostly I just at a LOT.  I was a hunger monster today.

For breakfast I made the husband and myself smoothies with silken tofu, frozen strawberries, honey, and So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk.

How awesome is that color?

During my 2.5mile incidental exercise walk home I snacked on a vegan chocolate chip cookie.

And when I got home I tried something new to me – Rutabaga Fries!

The husband peeled and sliced a big rutabega up for me yesterday and today I baked it for 30minutes at 400*.

I’ve seen this all over blogworld recently but I wasn’t sure I’d like it so I only used part of the rutebega.  Well one bite in I hopped up and put the rest of it into the oven!

It was amazing.  The flavor and texture are a lot like oven baked potato fries but they had this awesome nutty aftertaste.  I highly recommend that you go out and get a rutabega and try this for yourself.

I’d been wanting popcorn all day long so I finally caved and bought a bag.

I tossed the lame bag popcorn in some melted Smart Balance Light and 2T sugar to make some homemade vegan kettle corn.  Mmmmmmn!

I was still hungry so I made some homemade pizza dippers.

I sliced up a mini pizza crust and sprinkled it with garlic salt before baking.  Dipped in marinara.

And for the second half of “dinner” I ate a serving of Van’s Homestyle Pancakes with maple syrup.

Not my healthiest day by far, but a very very tasty one.

And I’m out.  See you after my test tomorrow.  Don’t forget to enter my yogurt maker giveway!

Noteworthy Nibbles

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Most of today was spent at the nearby amusement park, Darien Lake.  We had a fabulous time (and season passes, so we’ll be back soon!) but it was raining when we left so I didn’t bring my camera.  Since I don’t have pictures of everything I’m going to take a page from Cait’s plate book and just do the highlights.

(1) Breakfast = Van’s Homestyle Pancakes with homemade Banana Roux and a sprinkle of cinnamon-sugar.

The pancakes were good, but the Banana Roux might just  be my most genius idea of all time.  You can click the title for the recipe page, but this batch used Smart Balance Light and Silk Almond Milk.

Note – yesterday’s Berry Breakfast Topper has its own recipe page as well.

(2) Dessert, homemade milkless milkshake.

Genius + more genius = holy frick this is amazing!  I took Diana’s maple slushie idea and made it into a milkshake.  Into my blender went 1serving silken tofu, half a tray of ice-cubes, 1cup So Delicious Vanilla Coconut Milk, and 1/3cup maple syrup.

 Yum!

What were some of the highlights from your weekend?

Ecstasy and Irony

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I haven’t been all that impressed with my Sociology class.  I like the content a lot because it’s so similar to Anthropology, but my classmates aren’t exactly honor students.  Therefore, I’m always kind of torn about what to wear to class because I don’t like “wasting” a cute outfit.  Sometimes I just go with it though –

Looking spiffy just for me (and the husband during our carpool time) is worth it because it puts a smile on my face.  Today’s awesomeness went far beyond the outfit though ….. Note – this post is filled with bragging and over-excitement; you’ve been warned.

Perhaps today was extra awesome because breakfast was so tasty.  This combo rocks my socks off –

I topped my bowl of Kashi Strawberry Fields and Silk Pure Almond milk with a big handful of blueberries.

Gaaah!  This is the best almond milk on earth.  It is thick and creamy and has none of the nasty aftertaste I’ve found with other brands.  This is also the best Kashi variety in the solar system.  The crispy flakes have achieved a level of perfection in the sweetness and the freeze-dried berries get the best consistency when they start to get soggy.

After I dropped the husband off (and he told me how cute I looked) I headed to school early to get my study on.  I like the subject matter, but apparently not enough to study for my test the night before.  And I really wanted to study in the hour before class, but mostly I just daydreamed about what I’m making for breakfast this weekend.  (It is important to my bragging that you note here that I didn’t exactly break a sweat studying for this test)

I also snacked on a serving of Apple Cinnamon Kathy’s Krackers.

Class went well.  We talked about deviancy and, oh yeah, I scored a 47/50 on my test.  Highest score in the class (most of the other grades were below a 30/50), go me!

After class I had some errands to run so I decided to combine grocery shopping and studying into one.  I picked up some Wegman’s hot bar and sat and read.

I tried to keep my portions pretty small to save $.  Asian bbq tofu and wok seared veggies.

The tofu was not awesome.  More like inedible; here’s what I ended up leaving on my plate –

Thank goodness I had a pack of Banan-a-peel Peeled Snacks in my purse.

They were super chewy and took me awhile to eat so I had time to feel full before I started shopping.

On the way home I developed a new workout plan: 1. Move to a neighborhood with terrible parking.  2. Purchase a humongous watermelon because it’s on sale for $3.99.  3. Trek from your parking space to your apartment carrying said watermelon.  Repeat as necessary 🙂

When I finally got myself home I discovered the other awesome excitement –

I think this wins for most ironic moment of vegan month!  A few months ago I submitted a recipe in a Foodbuzz contest and I won a year’s worth of free eggs!  I think that qualifies for a 2nd go me!!!!!  Our budget has been severely restricted for next year and this will definitely help our grocery bills.

Go ahead and brag, tell me why YOU are awesome!

No Sesame, Soba, or Savoy

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The plan for dinner tonight comes from an old (like, September old) issue of Health magazine: Miso-Marinated Tofu and Eggplant Over Soba Noodles.  You can click here to see the original recipe.  However, make the original recipe we did not.  Apparently the husband and I are both stupid.  Like, seriously.  And cheap.  So to recap; click above for the original recipe and read below for our changes.

  • I used 14oz of extra firm tofu
  • I skipped the garlic
  • I used evoo instead of peanut oil
  • I skipped the sesame oil (I would not recommend this, I’m sure it imparted a great deal of flavor.  We are too poor for nut oils though)
  • I used 10 oz of bok choy instead of Napa cabbage (because that is what the husband bought when sent for cabbage ….. he’s going to be a doctor folks!)
  • I used buckwheat noodles instead of soba noodles

Here’s what we ended up with –

It was actually quite tasty, although I can see how the sesame oil would take it over the top.  I loved the stickiness of the buckwheat noodles!

For dessert I stuck a spoon into the last serving of Biscoff spread.

Just, yum!

Do you own sesame oil?  What sort of dishes do you use it in?

A New York Kind of Day

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Today was perfectly fantastic!  I ate all sorts of great food and we ended up walking more than 5 miles; basically it was my favorite kind of day.  It just felt like a Saturday in the city.  Perhaps because I dressed like I was in New York?

I’ve been trying to drink less (less, not no!) diet soda this month.  If vegan month means I’ll be eating no dairy – bone building – then it needs to also mean I’m eating no less chemicals – bone leaching.  I think iced tea is the answer, especially because it well help me to drink more water too.  Last night I mixed 5 cups of water and 7 bags of Eggnog’n in my new pitcher,

and this morning I made myself a big gulp.

FYI – Eggnog’n totally works just as well better cold!  The husband loved it too, and he usually drinks his iced tea with tons of sugar.

Other things the husband is currently loving?

S.S. Sea Salt Somersaults.  He made himself a big baggie to carry around all day.

Our first stop of the day was the farmers’ market.  It was pretty picked over by the time we got there, but Adam got some great homemade maple candy and shared a piece with me.

Wegmans – our next stop – was apparently where all the local goods were at –

We also got some hibiscus iced tea lemonade.

Once we got home and had all the groceries safely shelved we headed back out, this time on foot.  Our original destination was the Greek Festival,

but there was an admission fee and the food tent was mostly meat.  We trekked on (and on) until we came to Mezza, a brand new Mediterranean place that just opened yesterday.

At that point it had been more than 16hours since I’d eaten any solid food so pretty much anything would have sounded good!  Thankfully Mezza was just good, period!

I got Baba Ghanouj,

and stuffed grape leaves.

Picture lots of pita with that too.  Everything was ridiculously fresh tasting.  Usually Baba Ghanouj tends to be kind of greasy and heavy but this was totally light.  The husband thought he only liked falafel, but he loved everything he tasted today.  He inhaled more than half of my orders!

I probably shouldn’t have been quite so generous, because we’d barely made it down the block before I realized that I was actually still pretty hungry!  When we walked past the co-op we made a hot bar stop.

Vegan cheesy noodles and Pad Thai, Hunan tofu with broccoli, and 2 pieces of Southern-style tofu.  I ate while I walked which was messy but fun.  By the time we reached our apartment we’d covered more than 5miles, love that incidental exercise!

Later in the afternoon I found it totally necessary to inhale this coconut milk tapioca pudding.

It gave me a tummy ache but was soooo worth it!

I have to get up early because we have fun plans tomorrow and lots of studying to do (my first soc exam is on Monday).  In the interest of time and laziness we are going to eat popcorn for dinner and cuddle on the couch before bed.  Peace out!

What is your favorite Mediterranean offering?  Mine is stuffed grape leaves, the texture and taste of the leaves is just so interesting.